The present invention relates to an apparatus for compacting recyclable waste materials and, more particularly, to a mobile compacting apparatus for the collection of separable plastic or metal containers by a vehicle operating along a collection route.
The importance of recycling waste materials has become particularly significant in view of the increasing shortage of adequate landfill space, as well as the obvious benefits in saving resources by recycling materials of various kinds. As a result, there are significant changes in the manner in which trash and waste materials are collected from residential, commercial, and other sources. Prior to the trend toward the segregation of trash at the point of collection, collection trucks typically included large storage chambers into which mixtures of trash of all kinds were loaded, compacted on route, and unloaded by dumping the entire load at a common dropoff point. More recently, the desire to recycle waste materials has led to programs requiring the segregation of certain common materials at curb side or other collection point from which they are loaded into vehicles having separate compartments for each type of recyclable material. For example, waste materials such as newsprint, glass, metal containers and plastic containers, or some combination thereof, are segregated for collection in a vehicle having a separate compartment for each type of material.
Vehicles for the collection of recyclable materials may include apparatus for compaction on route, but more typically, include separate open storage compartments each of which is sized in accordance with the average anticipated volume of each recyclable material to be collected. For example, noncompacting trucks presently used for the collection of recyclable materials may have a total capacity of approximately 30 cubic yards of uncompacted materials. The most common recyclable materials presently collected include newsprint, glass, and metal containers. The collection bodies of the vehicles are then divided into three or more compartments with volume allocations of approximately 20 cubic yards for newsprint, 6 cubic yards for glass, and 4 cubic yards for metal containers. Both steel and aluminum containers may be mixed in one compartment or, that compartment may be subdivided into separate compartments of approximately 2 yards each for the separation of steel and aluminum containers.
The recycling of plastic containers has also become increasingly significant and attempts have been made to segregate them at the point of collection as well. However, particularly because of the tremendously large uncompacted volume occupied by plastic containers, there is little or no available space on a typical collection vehicle to accommodate these materials. In proportion to the volume of storage space required for other recyclable materials, uncompacted plastic containers of various types would require approximately 10-12 cubic yards of additional storage space. Adding this volume to a conventional 30 cubic yard body would result in a vehicle much too large and too slow moving to be cost effective, particularly along residential routes. If the space required for plastic container collection were taken pro rata from the other three compartments, the reduction in volume available for storage of these materials would also significantly reduce the overall collection efficiency of the vehicle. Thus, plastic containers are best and most efficiently recycled by the use of compartmentalized compaction, thereby reducing the amount of space which need be allocated to plastic container collection. Similarly, segregated steel and aluminum containers could likewise be handled efficiently by compartmentalized compaction. Newsprint is typically not as compressible as containers, and glass containers cannot be economically crushed and compacted on route because of the need to sort them by color to obtain the most value from the recycling of glass. Thus, compartmentalized compaction of newsprint and glass is not practical and, therefore, a recycling vehicle should have the capability of providing both compacting and non-compacting collection of recyclable waste materials.
The prior art is replete with refuse collection vehicles which utilize a rear loading hopper from which loaded refuse is swept forwardly into a storage or payload chamber and compacted therein. The rear loading hopper is pivotally attached to the payload chamber to allow rear discharge of the compacted mass. Rear discharge of the compacted mass may be effected by a rearwardly displaceable hydraulic ram or by tilting the storage chamber for gravity discharge. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,615,028; 3,682,336; 4,073,393; 4,180,365; and 4,551,055 all show refuse collection trucks of this type, none of which is readily adaptable to use as a recycling collection vehicle for various kinds of recyclable materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,462,031 shows a compacting refuse collection vehicle divided into a loading compartment and a compaction/storage compartment in which the loading compartment is pivoted upwardly to dump its contents into the compaction compartment where a packer blade continues movement of the refuse in the same direction and compacts it against the opposite end of the body. The compaction blade also operates to eject the compacted payload when an outlet door opposite the loading hopper is opened. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,005,789 and 4,260,316 also show compacting refuse collection vehicles in which the collected material moves longitudinally through the unit from a loading hopper into a payload chamber where it is compressed against an outlet door on the opposite end. These devices are intended for handling heterogeneous trash mixtures of relatively large volumes in a manner more or less conventional in the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,953 shows an apparatus for separate collection of both disposable and recyclable materials. The recyclable fraction, such as paper, is baled by pushing it forwardly from the rear and includes lateral discharge of the compacted bales. The disposable fraction is also pushed forwardly by a reciprocable blade toward a lateral discharge door on the forward end of the collection compartment. The disposable fraction is discharged by sidewise tilting of the storage compartment.
There remains a need in the industry for a compacting apparatus which is particularly adaptable for the collection and compaction on route of high volume, low density recyclable materials, such as plastic containers, as well as metal containers of both aluminum and steel. The compactor should be adaptable for incorporation into recycling collection vehicles of the type utilizing compartments for the non-compacting collection of other types of recyclable materials, such as newsprint and glass. Such a recycling apparatus should most desirably occupy a minimum total volume of space on the collection vehicle and yet provide a capacity for handling a large volume of recyclable containers. Also, the apparatus must be adaptable for convenient location and easy operation on the collection vehicle so as not to unduly complicate or add substantial additional time to the collection cycle.